48 hours might not seem like a lot of time, but for Michael Molinari (OneMrBean) and Chelsea Howe, it was enough to create this surprisingly evocative little piece of experimental interactive-art-meets-platforming, To What End, made for the Global Game Jam. You control purple puzzle piece leading a troop of happy, bouncy puzzle friends across a simple, idyllic little landscape with the [WASD] or [arrow] keys, which is also how you start the game incidentally. Your friends will follow you as you jump around... right up until something prevents them, and as the sun begins to sink below the horizon, you begin to realise you might have to leave some of them behind if you want to keep going, since the game ends when the day does.
But where are you really going anyway? And is it going to be worth it if you have to get there alone? That's what Chelsea and Michael are trying to make you think about, and whether they succeed is largely up to you. The visual style here is very clean and sparse, and yet surprisingly lovely at times, and the way your friends will sometimes leap and play or cuddle up to you in certain spots manages to infuse otherwise emotionless set pieces with a lot of personality. The gameplay here is exceptionally simple, but you do have decisions to make as you head towards whatever "the end" of the game is to theoretically win, which is usually the point in these sorts of things... right? Some may find it a bit patronizing, or not much of a game at all, but To What End is a tiny little experience that aims to make you think and feel about what's important in your life. Sometimes, it can be a lot simpler and a lot closer to where you begin than you might think. After all, some things are best when we get to experience them with the people we love.
The game will not progress. It finishes loading, and whenever I press a button, the screen fades out...and returns to the title screen.
Hey, inheritance.fan! I'm not having that problem myself. What browser and such are you using? I'm on Chrome on Windows 7 with the most recent Flash.
No loading issues here (old vista and ie 9)very sweet game though I dont have enough time right now to fully explore the world. I feel there should be some place where you could access higher grounds due to the way you can stack everyone up and bounce...have not found it yet though.
Deceptively simple. I agree that there should be more where you can play with the stacking of characters. It took me 2 plays to realise there actually is an end: I took too long the first time. It would have been nice if there was some sort of notification that suggests you just ran out of time. Lucky I tried it again, otherwise I would never have realised.
Nice, but slightly disappointed given OneMrBean's other games.
Just my thoughts, no tricks or hints here just the way it made me feel - so do not read if you have not played.
It made me want to cry, for all the trying, it is just so sad, I could not find a way to change the outcome ... no matter how hard I tried to stack my mates up to come with me. What an indictment on life today.. :(
yaddab, have you tried
not leaving anyone behind and just not proceeding? Shortly before the sign that makes you leave your first friend behind, you can just stop and wait by a series of wooden totems that resemble all of you. If you wait there until the sun sets and the stars come out, spending time with your friends, I think you'll find a more positive outcome.
After all, the only one forcing you to go on and decide to leave someone behind is you, right? :)
I refreshed and got it to work.
So there's at least 2 endings.
Go on alone.
Stay with friends.
Are there more?
This would probably be more fun if I didn't keep getting stuck on invisible walls, even when I'm going in the right direction. It kept happening even when I was alone. :/
Not to mention having to hunt down the main website in order to even play the game.
Tried three times and never got past the opening screen. Twice on Firefox, once on Chrome.
Are you using the keyboard instead of clicking the mouse? It's a keyboard-controlled game, so you have to click on the game once to give it focus, then use the keyboard to control the main character.
I'm suddenly having problems with the game after having played it earlier just fine. The game loads, I click the window to select it, press an arrow key, and the screen fades out and back in again on the title screen. Every time I press a key this happens, so I can't get past the title. Both Chrome and Firefox are doing it on my Mac. Very weird.
[I cannot reproduce this issue, though I acknowledge some are experiencing it. I'm also on a Mac and have tried multiple times in both Firefox and Chrome, but the game functions properly every time. I'll try contacting Michael about it to see if he has seen the issue before. -Jay]
[Update: Michael says he has heard of the issue before, but it must be a Flash Player version issue. Try updating to the latest version. -Jay]
For some reason,
No matter how hard I try running, time runs out before I reach the end. Is there something I'm doing wrong?
To what end will you go to get what you want...?
How long will it take to realize you already have it?
Did anyone manage to
get the totems to stack? I got 4 on top of each other.
Agh, it just sits at the title screen and does load, but would probably take forever to.
And when it did load, it just takes me back to the title screen when I try to move.
Wait, it didn't happen this time.
What a delightful treat. Here are the moments I found most heart-warming
If you travel together until the first group of wooden blocks, and wait for the end
the orange guy, and eventually the dark green one, dance around! There is joy at the sunset.
and also
the two 'lead' pieces (purple and blue) emanate hearts, and the blue one seems to dance when near the purple one.
It is also possible, especially near a ledge, to stack all the pieces into one family-tower. In this mode, if you keep jumping, the purple one can jump waaaay higher than usual (teamwork, anyone?).
No matter how you end the game, I think it's significant that the sky / background fades until it almost matches the colour of the lead purple puzzle piece, so s/he seems to disappear, just as our agency as players similarly expires.
So, the end. Because of the timed nature of the game, I'm not sure if where I got to was the end of the game.
I got to a cliff with a gravestone on it, and there seemed like nowhere to go but to jump off.
Was that the actual ending, or could I have gotten farther if I moved a little quicker?
If that is the end, then, wow. Makes me wonder if
it was a game about character who wants to achieve some goal but has to leave friends behind on the way, or a character who's suicidal and has to choose between listening to friends who want to help, or leaving them behind on purpose so he or she can die in peace?
I'm a little tipsy from 4th of July, though, so I'm probably really, really off-base. :)
To paraphrase a certain angry nerd, since I can't recall what episode it's from: 'what a happy game. No enemies or obstacles, you just walk from left to right.'
Another "art" "game" that fails at being either one. Pass.
I was most touched by the end where
It's just you and the blue puzzle piece left, and you reach the two green things that resemble you. To me, it seemed significant that it was only these two that were covered in green in the end whereas the previous two groups of totems were not perfectly shaped and seemed bare and incomplete in contrast. When I started the game I was sad and reluctant to leave my friends behind but after I saw this, it made me reinterpret the meaning of the game from "how far are you willing to go and leave your friends behind?" to "how far are your friends willing to go with you?". Towards the end, I saw the blue piece as my 'best friend' or 'lover'... the one who's stuck by my side through all the ups and downs (literally) so I was quite disturbed when I found the ending when you leave it behind and go on alone. (I decided to just jump off the cliff after that.)
I think the whole course of the game (a 'day') could be viewed as a lifetime with the landscape representing life events and your relationships with the people in your life. The strength of the relationships are reflected in the amount of time you spent with them and the depth of experiences that you shared. (I don't personally agree with the last statement completely - I don't think that the strength of a relationship has to be proportionate to the amount of time spent together.)
Wow, this is the first time I've dissected a game on Jig the way I have with this one.
Apologies for the long spoiler - I didn't realise I had so much to say.
Update